André Fuchs, a graphic artist who deals particularly with the phenomenon of chance, visited the students of UdK Berlin as part of the Basic lessons. He introduced us to the concept of aleatoricism, which describes the use of arbitrariness in various arts. Despite his opinion that it actually destroys the magic if you understand the methods behind it, Fuchs explained different approaches to us. These include improvisation, which was used by artists such as Piet Mondrian or Ellsworth Kelly. The dilemma can also become a welcome means of design, since it may reveal a surprise effect.

The posters were part of an infinite series because they are based on a random algorithm. Printed in A1 format (59.4×84.1 cm), they were used to advertise for André Fuchs’s lecture titled “Aleatorics. Coincidence as a tool” at UdK Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts).

Homepage with thumbnails

The “Basics” are the introduction to the four-year Bachelor course in Visual Communication at the UdK Berlin. The Basics blog documents lectures, seminars, workshops and other events. The main typeface used on the website is NB Akademie (Neubau Berlin). It’s accompanied by Clarendon Graphic (Optimo) and Euclid Stencil (Swiss Typefaces) for teasers and header graphics. The same typographic palette is also used for lecture posters.

Creative direction: Thomas Lehner
Design & programming: Benedikt Rottstegge
Project management: Miriam Kadel
Image editing: Andy King
Video editing: Jana Tost

Poster for the lecture series “Fundamente” at the Medienhaus, May/June 2018. The design by Thomas Lehner uses Euclid Stencil as actual stencil on stylized price stickers, revealing the text in Clarendon Graphic and NB Akademie underneath.

Header graphic from the blog

Video still from an interview with light artist Jean-Louis Gafner. It’s unclear why Clarendon Graphic’s spacing of ts was altered here.

Poster for a lecture by Ulrich Schwarz about “Bauhaus Transfer” on the occasion of the exhibition New Bauhaus Chicago: Experiment Fotografie und Film at the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, February 2018. Design: Thomas Lehner

Teaser image for a blog post about André Vladimir Heiz’s lecture on “Grundlagen der Gestaltung” (Design Basics), January 2017.